A few months ago Zack Snyder was boasting that Watchmen would destroy the superhero genre, and no movies like it could ever be made again. Not only is that patently not true-- it was never true, given how many projects Marvel has in the pipeline-- but it hasn't even killed projects similar to Watchmen. Not that Umbrella Academy is a Watchmen knockoff-- it's an adaptation of a comic book series written in 2007 by Gerard Way-- but it definitely seems to be sharing the same vein.

According to Variety, the story is about a group of seven superheroes who have parted ways, but come back together when their adoptive father dies, and they have to band together to carry out his plan to save the world. OK, I guess you could argue it's also kinda similar to X-Men, but here's a weird Watchmen connection for you-- Way, who wrote the book, is also the frontman for My Chemical Romance, the band that covered "Desolation Row" for the Watchmen closing credits.

The movie will be made by Universal as the first film in its three-year production deal with Dark Horse Comics, the company that also gave us Universal's lovely Hellboy adaptations. You may be concerned to hear that Race to Witch Mountain and Live Free or Die Hard writer Mark Bomback has been hired to adapt the script, and hey, I can't blame you. But I'll have to hear from some fans of this comic before I add this to my "things to be up in arms about" list.